0:00This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human. Get started at ChatGPT.com by selecting Work Mode.
0:05Available on Plus and Pro Plans. Welcome into Fantasy Pros.
0:08This is the Fantasy Football Podcast. Tara Roberts here with Pat Fitzmaurice and D-Bro and we are talking wide receivers.
0:14We're talking wide receivers that you will regret on passing this season in Fantasy Football.
0:19And we've got a nice range for you guys here.
0:22We've got some guys inside the top 60 overall based on our half PPR ADP.
0:27And then we've got some later picks outside of the top 60 there for you.
0:31So a good variety here. Let's go ahead and dive into it.
0:35Before we get started, though, I got to ask how you guys are both doing here, how we are dealing with all
0:42the injury news and how we are dealing with actually seeing real meaningful football and getting real starters this week in the preseason games.
0:49So, Pat, how you doing there? Doing well, Tara.
0:52Looking forward to it. And there have been a lot of minor injuries in camp.
0:57Luckily, nothing terrible yet. At least not among the players we're going to be drafting.
1:02Like no season enders yet. So knock wood there.
1:05I definitely don't want to jinx us. D-Bro, how about you?
1:08D-Bro. I'm trying to find anything made out of wood in my house to knock on because, yeah, every day it's, uh-oh, Luther Burton is possibly hurt.
1:16Uh-oh. Like I was spamming the slack over the weekend of like, here's all the injuries.
1:21Dear Lord, football is back because we're all just like, please stay healthy.
1:26I already drafted a league with you in it.
1:28Like, please just stay healthy. That's all I want.
1:31Exactly. And we can't overreact because, I mean, if there's just the tiniest minor, like, oh, there's a hangnail, they're going to
1:38let the player sit here because it's not absolutely critical that they must be on the field and they must play in the preseason games here.
1:46So it's kind of tough to delineate if there's any major issues here.
1:50So we're just all crossing our fingers and hoping that there is nothing major going on here and that we are good
1:57to go because we've got so many amazing players heading into draft season that we want.
2:02We're going to start off right here and we're going to start with Pat.
2:07Pat's going to give us a player here, player that I know has a lot of people feeling controversial.
2:13You either love him or you hate him here.
2:15So, Pat, start us off. Jamison Williams. And I'm not sure why people aren't that into Jamison Williams, Tara.
2:21Maybe people just don't trust him after the injury issues and the gambling suspension early in his career.
2:27Maybe people are worried that some of JMO's best games last year came in the second half of the season after Sam
2:34Laporta went down with a back injury. But I kind of want to push back on the Laporta thing.
2:40And by the way, Jamison Williams finished with 1117 yards last season.
2:44That was tied with Nico Collins for eighth in receiving yardage among wide receivers.
2:48And that followed his first thousand yard season in 2024.
2:51He scored eight touchdowns in 2024, seven last year.
2:54So, I don't think the reason for Jamison Williams' second half surge had as much to do with Sam Laporta's absence as
3:01it did with Lions head coach Dan Campbell relieving offensive coordinator John Morton of play calling duties.
3:06And just using Jamison Williams much differently. Morton had Jamison Williams running a lot of go routes and stretching the field.
3:13And Jared Goff, not really a quarterback who takes a lot of deep shots.
3:17He averaged six yards, air yards per pass attempt last year.
3:20He's more of a dink and dunk guy. Dan Campbell got Jamison Williams more involved in the short area of the field,
3:27running crossing routes, catching some wide receiver screens. Stuff that let Jamison Williams use that blazing speed after the catch.
3:34I think the new usage is going to stick with offensive coordinator Drew Petsing, who was hired in the offseason.
3:40Because you know that Campbell and Petsing had to have talked about Jamo's usage when Petsing was interviewing for the job.
3:46And look, Jamison Williams had an 1100 yard season, averaging exactly six targets a game.
3:51What happens if he gets seven, seven and a half targets a game this season?
3:56Lions play a lot of indoor games this year.
3:59Their shaky secondary could lead to a lot of track meets.
4:02I'm excited about Jamison Williams and think he's a value wide receiver 25.
4:06I'm with you on that one. And it's funny, I did a video talking about Jamison ironically being a safe player.
4:13Because while you might not think of him as a solid floor player, when you look in that range, you get to that wide receiver two range.
4:21There's a lot of guys that have age, injury, unproven, a lot of risk associated with them.
4:27And when you're looking at Jamison, he doesn't have any of that.
4:30He doesn't have a shaky quarterback. It's a high volume offense.
4:34It's just, yeah, there's going to be, you know, a little bit of volatility in terms of variability on a week to week basis.
4:41But in terms of the overall season and the promise that we have with this schedule being so good, the upgrade and
4:48offensive coordinator, I am 100% with you. I will ask you, are there any offensive line concerns?
4:54Because we did see that the Lions center went down with an injury.
4:58Yeah, Cade Mays. That is a little bit of a concern.
5:01Not too much of a concern, especially if they continue to use JMO in the short area of the field and the
5:08ball is out quickly with Jared Goff. If it was a guy who, if they were taking a lot of deep drops
5:15and this was more like a vertical passing game, I think I'd be a little more concerned.
5:20But, and by the way, Tara, I said wide receiver 25.
5:24That's ECR, our real-time ADP tool at Fantasy Pros.
5:26As Jamison Williams currently wide receiver 28th and 66th overall off the board.
5:30I think he's a crying steal at that point.
5:33Yeah, that's crazy value if it continues to drop.
5:36Now, you went on the closer end towards the end of the top 60 here.
5:41Debro went on the higher end here. We got a spicy one here.
5:45Start us off here with another player there, Debro.
5:48I think people are going to regret passing on A.J.
5:51Brown this year. I really do. And I understand, like, real-time ADPs, wide receiver 10, 23rd overall.
5:56I get it. You're having to pay up for him.
5:59I understand that fully. But I think A.J. Brown, we could see a career high across the board in targets receiving yardage and touchdowns.
6:07I think people are just missing the boat on the fact that, like, in a run-centric offense of the last four years,
6:14he's been wide receiver 10, 12, 8, and 8 in fantasy points per game this offseason.
6:19He goes from an offense that was 15th in neutral passing rate to one that was 9th and could throw the ball more considering a tougher schedule.
6:27They're not going to be able to just take their foot off the gas after halftime because they're just crushing opponents this year.
6:34That's not going to happen. And Drake May has, with A.J.
6:38Brown and Romeo Dobbs, has more weapons to throw to.
6:41So could we see another year in Josh McDaniel's system?
6:44More weapons. Can the Patriots fully lean into Drake May's skill set and say, we're going to throw the freaking ball?
6:51And A.J. Brown has touchdown upside for days. Again, talking about the Eagles offense.
6:55They were 32nd last in the NFL in 10 zone passing rate last year.
6:59The Patriots, 15th. And that might not sound like a ginormous jump, but that could be the difference between A.J.
7:06Brown scoring touchdowns and having to break off big plays on the regular to get into the end zone where it's like,
7:13oh, is he going to score seven, eight touchdowns?
7:15This could vault him into 12 plus receiving touchdowns this year.
7:19And if he does all this in a pass happy offense and hits career highs and targets and all the things and
7:26just absolutely crushes and touchdowns as well, we're discussing a guy that you're drafting at wide receiver 10 that can give you top three to five upside.
7:34And he's not washed. That's the other thing. It's like everybody's like, oh, well, last year he is another year older and
7:41the knee and he wasn't any good, really amongst 109 qualifying receivers last year, 16th and route win rate.
7:47He was also top 20 in yards per route run and first downs per route run.
7:52He's not washed. Just draft A.J. Brown and enjoy.
7:55Yeah, I think people underestimate the damage that Kevin Petullo did there in Philadelphia.
7:59And you nailed it there in terms of the potential increase in pass volume.
8:04I mean, the Patriots were off grading primarily off of efficiency.
8:07So there's a lot higher ceiling here. Even for Drake May plus A.J.
8:11Brown, how high would you be willing to take A.J.
8:14Brown? I've got him at wide receiver five. I would take him as high as that, but you don't have to.
8:21It's a great thing about it. Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense because the upside is there.
8:27Unquestioned wide receiver one in that offense. Great quarterback.
8:30Now I'm going to give you guys one here for me.
8:33Of course, I'm going to talk about Emeka Egbuka.
8:36Why not? Right? Why not? Emeka Abuka will help us lead Tampa Bay to a strong bounce back year here.
8:43He's currently wide receiver 18 in ECR 37 overall.
8:45I split the difference here between the guys. Wide receiver 18 also in ADP and overall 41.
8:51I know that it might feel a little uncomfortable to lean into a wide receiver one because we haven't actually seen him
8:58have that wide receiver one season yet. But do not pass on Emeka Abuka.
9:02If there is a young receiver going outside the top 15 that has true breakout potential into the top five here, it's Emeka Abuka for me.
9:10And this is a guy who has true wide receiver one value in a Tampa Bay offense that really failed last year overall.
9:17Because it's easy to look back and say, hey, you know, he didn't really pop as the season went on.
9:24You can make the excuses and say, oh, there were different bodies in there.
9:28But really as a whole, especially with the Tampa Bay pass game, everything just kind of went sideways because one, players were
9:35dealing with injuries, including Emeka Abuka, who was dealing with and playing through a hamstring injury.
9:40Baker Mayfield was dealing with multiple injuries there. And then we also had the issue of the offensive coordinator just unfortunately being over his head.
9:48But we have seen Emeka Abuka produce last year.
9:51And while it is a short sample size, we saw it happen alongside Mike Evans and then alongside Chris Godwin at separate times there.
9:58And I think that's important to note because I have seen people say that Emeka did not produce while Chris Godwin was
10:05there and that with Godwin back healthy, it's going to be an issue there.
10:09Right after Mike Evans went down in week three, Emeka Abuka had two 100 yard receiving games against Seattle and Philadelphia.
10:16That was alongside Chris Godwin who played over 70% of snaps, had 14 total targets.
10:21So it can work here. We're talking about a rookie that managed to garner 127 targets through an injury and a chaotic offense there.
10:28This is a high ceiling play and I do think it's a safe floor for play as well.
10:34So I'm trying to get Emeka Abuka as much as humanly possible in my fantasy drafts.
10:39Before we move on to the next player here, just as a reminder, guys, don't get sniped on your favorite receivers here.
10:46We're talking about these guys. You want them. So use the draft simulator to test different draft slots.
10:51See when your favorite receivers leave the board and learn exactly how early you need to select them to make sure that you get them on your team.
11:00Go to fantasy pro slash mock or download the fantasy pros app and start mocking today.
11:05Now let's go here. We've got our top 60 players.
11:08Now we're going to go outside of that. And this is where things get fun here because I love both of the players.
11:15I love talking about both of the players here that Pat and Debro pick.
11:20We'll start off here with Pat, your pick here, which is a podcast favorite.
11:24Parker Washington. The bandwagon is starting to fill up, but there are seats available.
11:29Parker Washington. So he has this thermonuclear finish last season.
11:3210.3 targets, 6.5 catches, 113.5 yards per game over the Jaguars last four games, including their playoff loss to the Bills.
11:38But not just the hot finish for Washington. He did average 8.9 yards per target and 2.19 yards per route run for the entire season.
11:46He averaged 0.24 targets per route run. A higher target per route run number than either Brian Thomas Jr.
11:52or Jacoby Myers last season. And we have seen slot receivers thrive in Liam Cohen's offenses.
11:57And Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence seems to prefer throwing to his slot guys rather than his outside receivers.
12:03Parker Washington is going to toggle between the slot and this Z receiver role.
12:07It's a really enticing role for him. And Parker Washington has, by all accounts, been one of the stars of Jacksonville's training camp.
12:14He just tore it up in an inter-squad scrimmage a few days ago.
12:18Trevor Lawrence has been lavishing praise on him. I can't wait to see what Parker Washington can do for an encore.
12:25Only problem is, Tara, the price is starting to go up a little.
12:29And now real-time ADP has him at wide receiver 30, 71st overall.
12:33Real-time ADP is actually outpaced ECR now on Parker Washington.
12:36So that drumbeat is getting a little louder, unfortunately.
12:39But I'm still buying at this point. Still not high enough.
12:42Still not loud enough. I'm still drafting him, Patty.
12:45I've got him at wide receiver 26, my man.
12:48I'm all in on Parker Washington. I like the aggressive ranking.
12:51Pat, where do you have him ranked? I've got him wide receiver 28.
12:55Nice, nice. OK, so that means that I need to update my rankings too.
13:00Now, I think I'm pretty good. I was trying to be mildly conservative there.
13:04Not during the party, Tara. Live a little bit.
13:07Let's go. You're right. Let's stop being conservative. Just go in, go in.
13:11Because it comes in a range where there's a lot of guys who are question marks anyways, right?
13:17So the question is, you know, are you going to take a chance that we're finally getting Marvin Harrison Jr.
13:23breakout? Or are we going to go into a guy that we saw operate as a high-end top 20 receiver last year?
13:30Yeah. Makes a lot of sense. Now, moving on to this next player Debro's got for us.
13:35Ironically, this is the Minus Debo. This is the Packers fan stand podcast here.
13:40And neither one of us pick Packers player. But thankfully, Debro, you're holding it down for us.
13:45I mean, Fitz and I could have just like exchanged players here.
13:49I know we're both hand-holding on Parker Washington and Christian Watson.
13:52Real-time ADP, wide receiver 27, 64th overall is just absolutely dismissive.
13:55It really is. It's blasphemous. In my rankings, I've got Christian Watson at wide receiver 20.
14:01I'm putting respect on his name because that's what he was last year.
14:05He was a wide receiver 2 in weeks 8 through 18, wide receiver 21 in fantasy points per game.
14:11Oh, look at that. Romeo Dobbs, Dontavian Wicks are gone.
14:14Christian Watson, another year off the ACL, 68% route share last year.
14:17That's going up. Christian Watson, still incredibly efficient. Another year off the ACL and in the LeFleur passing attack.
14:23Are we expecting that to go away? Like this otherworldly efficiency.
14:27People need to stop and say, okay, that's going to regress when we see it year after year after year after year.
14:34And last year, Christian Watson, fourth in yards per route run, 10th and first downs per route run, sixth in fantasy points per route run.
14:42A player that you're drafting as a wide receiver 3, I think can give you wide receiver 2 value and production on a weekly basis.
14:49And he has wide receiver 1, top 12 upside.
14:52If the playing time happens, if Jordan Love throws the freaking ball and the Packers are not a bottom 5 passing rate
14:59team, yeah, Christian Watson can absolutely cook this year.
15:02Yeah, it's funny because it's one of those things where we're not concerned.
15:06You talked about the bodies being removed. So, yeah, we've got bodies removed from this offense to help it not be this
15:13wide receiver by committee situation that we've come to know in terms of a fantasy perspective.
15:18And then on top of that, you've got room for this offense to grow from pass volume.
15:23They've been one of the most extremely run heavy offenses for multiple years in a row.
15:28So it's not as if we're looking at any potential for regression.
15:32So the only thing that you're worried about is can he stay on the field, the injury risk to him?
15:38Let me ask you, Debro, when it comes to him, a young, hot player with high upside in this offense, what would
15:45you take him over some of the guys who are more of the aging veterans in that range?
15:51Like, let's say, Mike Evans, Terry McClure and Devontae Adams.
15:54I've got him ranked ahead of DJ Moore, Mike Evans, Devontae Adams.
15:58Terry McClure is above him. But I mean, we're talking about wide receiver 17 versus wide receiver 20.
16:03So I'm taking Christian Watson above a ton of the older veterans.
16:07And this is not a shade against them. Like I have them above like ECR and ADP and stuff like that.
16:14But if I'm going to take the upside swing, I'm going to bet on Watson, which again, Patty, did the Packers have
16:21any problem investing in Watson and giving him a monster contract this year?
16:25I think that that's a pretty good show of investment and a nice pat on the back of, hey, guess what?
16:31You proved you're our wide receiver one last year.
16:34Guess what? We want you to do it again this year.
16:37Yeah, they did not have any problems with that.
16:40And I know he's missed 20 games over four NFL seasons.
16:44So people worry about that. But after coming back from the torn ACL, sustained in 2024 last year, made it through 10 straight games.
16:51There was a scare against Denver on December 14th, where he banged up his shoulder and was actually hospitalized after the game, played the next week.
16:59So maybe we're getting the new, more durable version of Christian Watson these days.
17:04There we go. Pat, how about you? When in terms of like those veterans there in that same range, are you taking Watson ahead of them?
17:12I am like Debrough and then I've got him ahead of all the guys you mentioned, DJ Moore, who were the only
17:19one, same as Debrough, Terry McLaurin, slightly higher. That's it.
17:22Yeah. Cool. Same for me. Terry is the only one that I would have a little bit higher.
17:28Everybody else. Yeah. I'm going to go with the younger one there.
17:31Now I'm going to give you one player as well.
17:34Before we close things out here, I went a little bit further back, like a lot further back.
17:40Maybe I'm going to Josh Downs here and he should be on the rise.
17:44I do think he's on the rise, but not as much as it might warrant here.
17:50Josh Downs, wide receiver 42 in ECR, overall 97, wide receiver six in ADP, overall 117.
17:55That is insane. He is literally going right before people start reaching on high end defenses.
18:00Now, when I was looking at Josh Downs all off season, I was, you know, passively in on him.
18:05But as we've gotten closer to the season here, it is becoming increasingly one of the guys that I feel is the
18:12most critical guy that I can get in double digit rounds for me.
18:16And that is because we have no timeline on Alec Pierce right now.
18:21And yes, Downs is dealing with a minor and he's one of the players dealing with one of those minor injuries in camps that happens.
18:28But if we faded everyone that was nicked up in camp, we would have no one to draft.
18:34But Alec Pierce's injury is not minor. He's coming off surgery, clearly running behind the timeline compared to all of these other
18:41guys who have offseason surgeries as well. Downs has a legitimate shot at being the wide receiver one for the Colts in
18:48the first month of season and maybe beyond that.
18:51Now, of course, being the wide receiver one for the Colts doesn't mean like massive high end JSN level of target share because we've got Tyler Warren there.
18:59And obviously they run heavy through Jonathan Taylor. But Downs has a shot to put up top 24 production and massively outperform his ADP.
19:07And he's been a very steady producer throughout his entire career there.
19:11He just hasn't really had a chance to push through because of the presence of Michael Pittman.
19:16And now that Michael Pittman is gone and with Alec Pierce injured, Downs should be the second look behind Tyler Warren here
19:23or potentially operate with a very similar target share here.
19:26And specifically, even when we get Alec Pierce back, the Michael Pittman exit is really key there.
19:31These guys, obviously two very different players in terms of size, but they both had a dots of 8.4, very extremely similar yards per route run.
19:39This exit of 110 targets that is leaving with Michael Pittman is really going to open up opportunities here for Josh Downs.
19:46So the value for him and the potential for him to be a guy that you can trust in your flex in week one.
19:54Yeah. Sign me up on that one. All right, guys.
19:57Appreciate you all tuning in. And that wraps things up for this show.
20:01Before we head out, make sure to like the video and make sure that you are subscribed to the YouTube channel and
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20:15pros tools to put your fantasy team in the best position for 2026.
20:19For Pat Fitzmaurice and Debro, I'm Tara Roberts. Thank you for tuning in.
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